Wednesday, September 27, 2017

It seems like kids in school are always lining up for something. You line up for lunch. You line up to go outside for recess. You line up basically to go anywhere at all. when I was a kid there were only two ways we lined up, either in alphabetical order or by height, and the second was far more common.

I was the tallest girl in my class, and I was taller than most of the boys throughout elementary school, so as it were, I was always in the back of the line. Maybe you are like me or maybe you are the exact opposite. Maybe you are always in the front of the line. Either way, you should know that you are perfect just the way you are, although it might not feel like it right now. In fact, most kids wonder: "When will I get taller?" and "How tall am I going to be?"

Here are a few things you should know: You mostly grow little by little except for a couple of' 'spurts.' Your first spurt happens as a baby in your first year of life when you may grow 10 inches. After that, your next spurt is during puberty(when your body starts changing into what it will be as an adult.) This results in a growth spurt for girls between the age of 10 and 14, while boys can continue to grow until around age 16 and some even a few years later.

How tall you are going to be is mostly determined by your genes. That means your parents set the maximum potential for your height and you will likely not be taller than that. One way to get a close estimate of your adult height is to double the height you were at two years (if you are a boy) or 18 months (if you are a girl.)

The bottom line, though, is there are lots of differences among people, some are tall and some are short and lots are somewhere in between. But all of them are perfectly OK.

For the most part, there's not a whole lot you can do about your height except wait and see. In the meantime, you should do everything you can to be your healthiest self, including eating right, getting the proper amount of sleep, exercising regularly, and of course seeing your chiropractor regularly. If you do all these things you will likely not only reach your maximum height potential but your maximum potential in every area in life.

Remember everyone grows differently and the beauty is there is no one just like YOU. You are amazing just the way you are. So celebrate and have a great school year, no matter where you stand in the lineup.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

We have a tyranny of fear in the U.S. about fevers and infections, which is understandable, but which is a terrible obstacle to healing what ails us as individuals and as a society.

We have a mindset that says it's bad to have an illness, and that health is the absence of illness. This isn't always true. Fever is the healing flame, the great cleanser of the body, and a critical part of developing a child's immune system. An immune system that is vigorously exercised through fevers in childhood will become a much stronger and more able adult immune system than one that has been artificially suppressed since birth with vaccinations, antibiotics and fever-reducing medications. The "use it or lose it" adage applies well here.

In other words, it's very important to understand that it's our own immune system that creates our fevers, and that fevers are our main defense against our body's toxicity and the germs which feed on that toxicity. Parents are overanxious to lower a fever, and assume that when we artificially bring it down the child is healthy, which is often not the case.

Children often get fevers when they are stressed. Childhood is the time of rapid growth and dramatic change, and a child will remodel and renew his body many times as he grows. Every remodeling job requires some demolition, a breaking down of old cells and tissues that results in toxic waste and debris, which the body normally cleans up as it rebuilds new cells and tissues. This demolition, cleansing and rebuilding is silently going on in all the time through our immune system, but more so in growing children. Every so often this ongoing remodeling of the immune system shifts into high gear, either because we are unknowingly taking a bigger developmental step than usual, or because we've become toxic from too much stress.

this inward shifting into high gear of our immune system has an unwelcome outer result--it makes us sick with inflammation, fever and discharge of mucus. thus, we come down with a flu, vomiting, diarrhea, strep throat, ect. In this way the immune system expels from the body mucus, pus, germs, and other toxic waste and debris that have been nourishing the opportunistic germs. The crucial fact is that the symptoms of the illness are also the healing of the illness. That is because the symptoms are caused by inflammation, and inflammation is what our immune system uses in order to detoxify and heal.

When we diminish symptoms with Tylenol, ibuprofen, decongestants or antibiotics, at the same time we diminish the healing, cleansing, expulsive power of our innate immune systems. Every inflammation, in children or adults, every cold, sore throat, earache, fever and rash, is a "healing crisis." A healing crisis is an intense action of the immune system to cleanse and detoxify the body. It is a strong effort by the human spirit to remodel the body so it can be a more suitable dwelling.

It's amazing what a different parental attitudes toward fevers can do for a child's healing process. Children seem to intuitively know this is something they need. children usually don't have severe aches and pains with their fevers that adults suffer, because children's bodies are less dense and hardened than adult bodies, and offer less resistance to the fever surge of warmth flowing through them. A 5-year old boy I knew said to his worried mom during his fever,"Don't worry, Mom, I'm just growing." But that doesn't mean they should be running around outside. This is a time when children should rest and it's extremely important for them to stay warm. My general rule of thumb is to dress them warmly enough so that their cheeks are rosy, and their hands and feet are warm, but there is no sweat or perspiration. the body needs to be hot to burn out all the illness. If the body is harboring toxicity, then a discharging fever with a runny nose, vomiting or diarrhea, for example, could be just the housecleaning that the body needs. The discharge is a sign that the fever and inflammation produced by the immune system are"digesting" toxic waste and debris and releasing them from the body, making most people healthier after they've had a fever.

Written by Philip Incao, MD
Provided by Pathways to Family Wellness #34
For more information, visit www.discoverkidshealth.com

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

It's amazing: You place a bandage over a booboo and after just a few days, the wound is miraculously healed! From a child's perspective, it may appear that the bandage has magical healing powers. I have witnessed this with my own children. Even a tiny, nearly invisible, red mark would send them running for or asking for a bandaid. (Though, the appeal of sticking cartoon characters all over themselves may have had something to do with it.)

The real question you need to ask yourself is: "Where does healing com from, the outside or the inside?"

If you cut your hand open, you will likely need a doctor to sew it up in order for it to heal. True. But the body naturally does its part, too - conducting the many processes that form a protective scab and create new living tissue. I am not suggesting that outside intervention is not important in removing obstructions to your body's ability to heal itself. There is a time and place for intervention. What I am suggesting is that too much focus is given tot he bandage at the cost of fully recognizing how the body heals and how to support optimum health.

Your body has an inner intelligent force driving it to self-heal. This innate/inborn wisdom is light years ahead of scientific understanding and yes, smarter than a bandage! It produces compounds of chemicals at precisely the right time in the right place for the right job. It turns your food into new living cells and energy that sustains your life. On a daily basis, it orchestrates processes that remove cancer cells, bacteria, viruses and toxins from your body. You create LIFE every second of every day! It's not just cool, it's one of the greatest wonders of the universe!

By recognizing the wisdom within, you can begin to approach your health in a new way - a way that is central to the chiropractic approach and what I believe makes chiropractic special. Instead of looking for what you need to treat a challenge from the outside (such as using medication to treat a symptom), start looking at what went wrong on the inside that allowed imbalance and your body will heal. Take headaches for example. If you have a tension headache or migraine, you have to ask yourself what is causing your pain. Is it due to an insufficient amount of pain drugs in your diet (outside) or from an imbalance caused by abnormal spinal function in the upper neck (inside)? From my experience, 80% of headaches originate from upper neck issues. In chiropractic, we would correct the spinal condition bringing balance back to your body. This allows the pain to naturally dissipate. We would also look at coaching you on ergonomics in regard to your computer time.

Many examples can be made from high blood pressure and cholesterol to menstrual pain and depression. in order to ask the right questions about what might be causing your inside imbalances, think of the word "DREAM."

Great health is your body's natural state. You are pre-programmed to function optimally. You came out of the box this way. it's your birth right! Sickness primarily occurs when there is interference to the body's innate ability to heal itself. By focusing on the inside and removing obstructions found n your DREAM, you can return to optimum levels of health and remain there. Failing to do so can cause continued suffering and allow your health to decline further over time. Worst of all, it may prove that you are NOT smarter than a bandage.

Written by Scott Rosenthal, D.C.
For more information, visit www.discoverkidshealth.com

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About Me

Dr. Heather Giesen attended North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND prior to attending Northwestern Health Sciences University, Bloomington, MN. Dr. Heather graduated in 2004 with a Bachelors in Human Biology and her Doctor of Chiropractic Degree. Dr. Heather is Board Certified by the state of Minnesota and the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners. Dr. Heather is certified in the Gonstead Technique and specialzes in pedatrics and family wellness care.
Prior to founding Giesen Family Chiropractic, Dr. Heather had a practice in Roseville, MN and Bloomington, MN. Dr. Heather delivered thousands of adjustments to children and adults. Dr. Heather focuses on a well-balanced approach to health.